Chapters "Ahh, Cloudsdale! Long time no see!" exclaimed a tall, black pegasus stallion, taking a sip of cider. His navy-blue companion muttered something under his breath, looking at his glass suspiciously through his thick-rimmed glasses.
"What’s up, dude?" the black pony asked. "I brought you to the home of the most beautiful pegasi mares you can imagine, and since we came here, you barely said a word. Who are you, and what you did to the good ol’ Cloud Counter?"
"Nothing, I’ve just been wondering, why are we sitting in this pub instead of hanging out in the place where there actually are some mares, or do what I should be doing now, work," Cloud Counter deadpanned. His friend sighed.
"Work! You won’t cause an apocalypse if you don’t calculate something this evening. "
"Rainstorm, the whole balance of Equestria’s weather depends of my calculations…" the blue stallion started, but Rainstorm interrupted him.
"Besides, there are mares here. See those two at the counter?" he finished his cider, stood up and stroked his blue mane.
"Come on old nerd, gonna be my wingpony?" Cloud Counter rolled his eyes and followed him, awkwardly trying to use one of his wings to smoothen his chestnut-coloured hair in similar manner.
"Hello, ladies!" Rainstorm’s shout was probably heard even outside the “Cats and Dogs Pub”. He leant close to the younger, lilac mare, "My name’s Rainstorm. Don’t forget that name, ‘cause tonight you’re gonna scream it!"
Both mares looked at him unimpressed. Cloud Counter facehoofed (or rather facehoofed and facewinged at the same time). Because of that he hadn’t seen what happened later, but suddenly he heard a loud “thud!”. He uncovered his eyes and saw Rainstorm lying on the floor covering his face with front hooves and muttering some unrecognizable obscenities. The grayish—blue mare with a bow stood above him with murderous glint in her eyes. After a while, the black stallion managed to get up, gave her a painful look, and staggered to the bathroom on three legs, still covering his face with the fourth one. Leader down, wingpony has to accomplish the mission , thought Cloud Counter.
"Nice hook, girl" he said.
"Thanks," she smiled at him. "Was that… poor excuse for a stallion your friend?"
Cloud Counter started to think quickly. Rainstorm was his former classmate, after graduation they worked together for some time, and now they both were on business trip to Cloudsdale – yet he never called his loud and annoying companion a friend.
"Friend? No, not really. He’s my cousin. Complete douchebag. From Canterlot," last two sentences he said in a way suggesting that “complete douchebag from Canterlot” is the worst possible thing that can happen to a pony.
"Well, that explains many things…" said the other mare, her coat slightly darker than her friend’s. She also had the most improbable manestyle Cloud Counter had ever seen.
"Yeah, a black sheep of the family," he suddenly put on his (slightly fake) Trottingham accent. Not only because it annoyed Rainstorm, but also seemed to attract mares. "And now I have to foalsit him on his trip around Equestria."
"Oh, that’s sad," said the younger mare in rather bored tone. "By the way, my name is Flitter, and this is my sister, Cloudchaser."
"Like, from counting clouds?," asked Cloudchaser.
"Don’t ya think this place is a bit boring?" he asked the sisters. "How about going somewhah else?"
"How about your cousin?" Cloudchaser asked.
"Don’t worry, he knows the way to the hotel."
***
"Hello, chap! How was your night in Cloudsdale, the great town, where douchebags get a hit between the eyes and gentlecolts get threesomes with hot sisters?" shouted Cloud Counter, entering the hotel room. In fact there was no threesome, he said so only to piss Rainstorm off. After they left the pub they headed to the sister’s favourite club where they had few… well, as far as Cloud Counter’s analytical mind recalled, a bit more than few drinks, and they ended up walking staggering Flitter home. Cloudchaser helped her walk upstairs to her bedroom and came back to Cloud Counter, waiting at the door.
"So… I think I’ll go back to the hotel, I need to use some sleep too," he said and prepared himself to fly, straightening the wings in awkward stance, one wing higher than the other.
"Are you sure you’re gonna make it?" Cloudchaser asked. She felt rather fine, but she’d never risk flying under the influence. Or letting somepony else do it.
"Don’t worry…" he tried to take off only to feel a sudden head rush, and only by a stroke of luck he avoided faceplanting in front of her.
"Well, I think I’ll bettah walk…" he said.
"No need to hurry," she smiled. "You’ve said that your cousin probably got drunk after we left and is now sleeping, so no need to wake him up. Come inside, let’s have a cup of tea."
"Yeah… you’ve got the point, ‘Chaseah,"
"And drop that accent. You slipped with it so many times tonight that I lost count."
"Oh… sorry, ‘Chaser," he muttered as he entered the living-room. He sat on a sofa and looked around the room, immediately spotting a familiar uniform, hanging on a chair.
"Are you a Wonderbolts’ trainee?" he asked Cloudchaser, who was preparing tea in the kitchen.
"Yeah… but I doubt if I’ll ever become a Wonderbolt myself, there are lot of better fliers there…"
"Oh, don’t say that. I work with weather teams all over Equestria and I can recognize a good flier when I see one. And I’m sure that you’re good."
He could swear that when she came to the living-room with a tray and sat next to him, she was blushing slightly. He took his tea and noticed a framed photo standing on a drawer next to the sofa.
"Is that your boyfriend?" he asked, pointing on a picture depicting Cloudchaser next to the biggest stallion he’d ever seen. Unlike Rainstorm, Cloud Counter never hit on taken mares, besides, that guy didn’t look like somepony whom he’d like to annoy. He didn’t like staying in hospital that much.
"Snowflake? No, he’s my wingpony. Really nice guy, but not really my type. As you can guess, he’s not very talkative…"
Cloud Counter nodded and asked: "What is your type, then?"
"Smart guys," she answered quickly. A bit too quickly, Cloud Counter thought. "You know, they say it’s the new sexy…" she added, leaning to him. Behind the window, Celestia’s sun rose, enlightening the slowly waking-up Cloudsdale.
***
Cloud Counter smiled at his memories once more as he entered the hotel room. His previous attempt to annoy Rainstorm failed, as his colleague’s bed was empty. Perhaps he stayed in the pub drowning his sorrows, and surely he is angry at me for ditching him, so he won’t show up till he gets sober , Cloud Counter thought, falling asleep.
***
Several hours later he was woken up by knocking at the door.
"Royal Guards! Open the door sir!"
If this is one of Rainstorm’s stupid pranks, I’m gonna kill him , Cloud Counter thought. He went to the door and opened it. Behind it, there were two Royal Guards with serious expressions on their faces.
"Mister Cloud Counter?"
"Yes, officer," he said, trying unsuccessfully to straighten up his unkempt mane with one of his wings.
"We need to talk about your colleague, Rainstorm…"
Author's Note
Here we go. I wondered if I should add "romance" tag, but, actually, other chapters contain only trace amounts of it.
"Again? Why every time this damn DJ has a gig in this town, it ends up with calling us?" Surveillance asked his fellow Royal Guard, Hot Pursuit.
"Sex, drugs and dubstep, apparently," Hot Pursuit winked, "But this time it’s not the usual stuff."
"So…" Surveillance did a quick check of his memory. "No riots, no destroying public property, no drugs, no arson, blasphemy or performing naked?"
"Is that even a crime?"
Surveillance said nothing, as they just arrived the crime scene: the club in Ponyville, where DJ Pon3’s show took place, attracting not only music fans from the whole region, but also several dozens of Royal Guards.
"Quite a big party, it seems," said Surveillance as they approached two other guards, twins Short Shock and Sharp Shock.
"What’s going on here?"
"Attempted murder, sir," said slightly taller pony, Short Shock. "Somepony lurked in the toilets with a lead pipe, and during the break in the show…"
"Boys are interrogating everypony," his brother interrupted him, "We sent a pipe to the lab, and we also arrested two ponies."
"You already have the murderer? Who was it? Why did you called us then?" asked Surveillance.
"Her name is Lyra Heartstrings, sir. We don’t know if she’s a murderer, she just ran out of the bathroom, covered in blood. And technically she’s not a murderer, as the victim is in a coma…"
"Oh, shut up!" yelled Surveillance. Younger guards were constantly giving him headache.
"Ok, so you arrested somepony, who’ll probably say that she found a victim and tried to save him… or her. Who else did you arrest?" asked Hot Pursuit.
"It’s her, ma’am. Lyra Heartstrings is… well, her special somepony," Short Shock’s face blushed. Both Surveillance and Hot Pursuit sighed.
"Well, that might be a motive," stated Surveillance rather absent-mindedly. "But whom else did you arrest?"
"Vinyl Scratch, alias DJ Pon3," Sharp Shock stood at attention.
"And you arrested her because you had a reason to do so, or because apparently, some officers follow the “if in doubt, arrest the DJ” rule?" asked Hot Pursuit, looking at Surveillance.
"She sneaked out of the club when we told everypony to stay inside. She said that she only went to smoke, so we arrested her for drug possession," Sharp Shock was clearly proud of his brilliant mind.
"Has she even had drugs?" asked Surveillance. "It wouldn’t be good for the image of Royal Guards, if two rookies had arrested a famous pony for smoking a perfectly legal cigarette…"
"Yes, sir, it was weed. I checked myself!" said Short Shock.
That explains, why you both stand here smiling like morons, brimming with pride as if you caught Princess Luna on jaywalking, thought Surveillance.
"Ok, guys, let’s take Ms Heartstrings and Ms Scratch to the station for interrogation. Tell someone who’s in charge here that when they finish talking with the rest of the audience, I want a complete report on my desk. Hoofprints, testimonies, everything," ordered Hot Pursuit.
"Yes ma’am!" both brothers shouted in unison, "By the way," Sharp Shock added. "We called a psychologist and consultant detective. They’ll await us on a station."
Surveillance mentally facehoofed. Those idiots not only wasted time arresting the DJ, but they also called two ponies whom he didn’t like messing in his investigation: a psychologist (he didn’t know her, but he generally despised psychology), and at the top of that, consultant detective, Twilight Sparkle. Of course she helped the guards with few cases, but he preferred to work alone, without any civilians around.
***
The police station was dark and almost devoid of life. Surveillance entered the building and led the small group of guards escorting Lyra and Vinyl to the interrogation rooms. In the narrow corridor, enlightened only by faint glare of blinking bulb they met two ponies.
"Good evening, Ms Sparkle," mumbled Surveillance, when he saw the familiar silhouette of a lavender unicorn. "... and Ms…"
"My name’s Krissy, officer," the young, gray pegasus with a question mark for a cutie mark introduced herself. "I’m a forensic psychologist from Cloudsdale."
"I’m afraid you were woken up unnecessarily. We already have a suspect," said Surveillance politely. In other words: go home and let me do my job , he thought.
‘Even two suspects, I see,’ Twilight looked at half-conscious Lyra who was staring blankly in a distant space and had to be carried by two guards, and Vinyl, who seemed too tipsy to acknowledge where she is.
"It’s a long story," said Hot Pursuit.
***
Surveillance was muttering curses under his breath. The interrogation of Lyra Heartstrings gave them absolutely nothing. Krissy said that probably trauma she suffered when she either tried to kill her marefriend (Bon-Bon, if he remembered her name) or found her mauled with a lead pipe caused the catatonia. He asked the psychologist if it’d meant that she was innocent.
"Not necessarily. Maybe that was a crime of passion and her mind reacted like that when she realized what she had done. You know, sir, not everyone is a cold-blooded murderer, who lures ponies to their cellar, tortures them to death and goes back to their chores," the gray pegasus explained. Then Surveillance ordered Short Shock to transport Lyra and Krissy to the hospital and went to another interrogation room, where Vinyl Scratch awaited him.
He found the white unicorn with her sunglasses on nodding off on her chair. As he entered the room, she stared at him as if she saw him for the first time in her life, yawned and took her glasses off, revealing half-closed cerise eyes. This won’t be easy, he thought, especially with Twilight Sparkle watching us from behind the one-way mirror.
"Good evening, ma’am. Do you know why you’re here?" he asked.
"Yeah, officer," her voice was a bit slurred, even though she tried to speak slowly to keep it clear. "Drugs again, huh? I tried to explain those two morons that it’s my medication, but they didn’t listen…"
At least one thing we agree on: the Shock brothers are morons. Strange, considering the fact that their father Shell Shock was the most brilliant detective I’ve ever met.
"Medication, yeah…"
"I swear to Celestia, I need it for my eyes! You know, officer, they sometimes turn red and I need to smoke, or I can get blind. I have a prescription. Doc said that I have a rare ge-ne-tic con-di-tion…"
"Rare genetic condition?" he said in a condescending tone. "Ms Scratch, how high are you?"
"No officer. It’s “Hi, how are you?”"
Celestiabuckindammit.
"Well, Ms Scratch, let’s say I believe you with this one. Just remember to buy your meds in pharmacy, not from some random pony on the street."
"Yes, sir!" she exclaimed in a way much resembling Shock brothers. "Ya know, the one I took before arrivin’ here wasn’t very good… I’m not feelin’ well, ya know."
If she throws up, I’m gonna unleash that whole “police brutality” stuff.
"Ok, if we’re done with this one, let’s continue with another thing… What happened at the show?"
"Nuffin’ special at first, ya know," she clearly forgot to call him “officer”. "The whole DJ’ing stuff, a short break, I had a drink or two, went to the bathroom, then the second part of the concert started and then suddenly Lyra runs from the toilet screaming, blood and stuff, like in movies, ya know, guards, sirens, panic…" her stream of consciousness was interrupted by Hot Pursuit and Twilight, who entered the room.
"We have first reports from the lab," said the guard. "There no hoofprints on the pipe, but there’s a trace of magic on it. Whoever did it, was an unicorn."
"Was that Heartstrings?" asked Surveillance. Vinyl Scratch started mumbling something incoherently, but no one paid attention.
"We are not sure. We can’t take a sample of magic from her at the moment."
"We also got the reports about Lyra and Bon-Bon," added Twilight. "Neighbours say that they were calm, good couple, no reports about domestic violence…"
"Excuse me," Vinyl’s babbling suddenly became more coherent, "May I go home? Last time I came back home so late I ended up in a hospital, because a cello fell on my head. Like, four times or so…"
"Don’t worry, we’ll finish soon," said Surveillance. "You’ve said that you were in the bathroom before everything happened. Did you notice something strange? Or maybe somepony?"
"No, officer. In fact I remember drinking cider, going to the bathroom and then… the second part of the show?"
Surveillance looked at her narrowly. The door opened and another guard, with biohazard symbol as her cutie mark, entered the room.
"Ms Scratch, may we take some blood and magic samples?"
"We don’t need the magic sample," said Hot Pursuit while Vinyl was muttering some incoherent variation of “I’m, like, totally scared of needles”. "The pattern of her magic is already recorded in our database. All we need to do is to compare it with the traces on a pipe."
"Already in database? What did she do?" asked Surveillance.
"She mugged a filly in Canterlot when she was fifteen."
"Mistakes of the youth… besides, what was filly doing at 2 AM in that district of Canterlot with a bag full of bits? If I haven’t mugged her, she’d get mugged by someone else… Hey, watch out with that syrin- ouch! Or mugged and killed. Or mugged, foalnapped and sold to the circus…" Vinyl’s speech became more slurred again. It seemed her consciousness was lulling again.
"Ms Scratch, your line of defence is flawed," deadpanned Surveillance.
"That’s what the judge said," she mumbled just before her head hit the table and she started to snore loudly.
"It seems that interrogation’s over," said Hot Pursuit. "As for me, I’d like to follow our poor DJ. Test Strip," she addressed the biohazard pony who just hid a test tube with Vinyl’s blood in the pocket of her lab coat. "Tell the lab crew to compare the samples and check this blood for alcohol, drugs and other substances immediately. Hope that we’ll be able to check Ms Heartstrings’ magic pattern too…"
"Krissy took care of her," said Twilight when Test Strip left, muttering something unpleasant about working at night. "But I don’t know whether she’ll be able to cast any spells soon."
Surveillance gave her the most serious of his serious stares.
"Better for her if she does."
Author's Note
For those who don't know: GBH stands for "Grievous Bodily Harm".
"Vinyl, wake up!"
She slowly opened her eyelids. Her throat was dry and she felt a throbbing headache.
"Tavi?" her own voice scared her. It sounded as if she’d lost it somewhere and found it few hours later in a sever, half-eaten by rats.
The ceiling was painted in dull grey, she could’ve also seen some cracks in it. It seems that I didn’t come back home yesterday. Where am I then?
She raised her head, only to feel a new wave of pain. And another two, coming from her liver and spine.
Tavi’s probably worrying herself to death. I promised her to go home right after the show. She’ll kill me…
She noticed the bars in the window.
Buck. If she doesn’t kill me, I’ll do it myself.
"Vinyl? Ms Scratch?"
Two ponies were standing behind the iron grating. One of them was grey and Vinyl initially thought it was Octavia, but then noticed the wings. The other pony was a lavender mare Vinyl, just like probably everypony in Equestria knew: Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic and personal student of Princess Celestia.
"Yeah, I’m here. I’d invite ya inside, but I’m afraid it’s not up to me…"
"No problem," said Twilight, levitating the keys. She opened the grating and both mares entered the cell.
"Are you ok?" asked the gray pegasus, whose name was, if Vinyl recalled properly, Krissy.
The unicorn tried to answer, but the only thing she managed was a fit of coughing. Finally with a great effort she managed to rasp only one word: “water”.
Twilight’s horn lit, and a glass of water appeared on a small shelf next to the hard, wooden bed Vinyl was sitting on. The DJ tried to lift it with her magic, but after few unsuccessful attempts she grabbed it with her hoof (Tavi’s lessons paid off , she thought) and gulped the whole water at once.
"If by “ok” you mean “I’ve woken up in a prison with a terrible hangover and, one of my best friends probably tried to kill her marefriend, then yes, I’m ok," she said. Her voice still sounded like sandpaper, but it was much better now.
"Well, the good news is that we managed to restore contact with Lyra," replied Krissy. "She’s still in shock, but at least she was able to perform a spell pattern of which we recorded and compared with the trace on the pipe. She wasn’t the one who tried to kill Bon-Bon."
Vinyl sighed with relief. Good news for her, bad news for Surveillance , thought Twilight and levitated two pieces of paper from her saddlebags. On both of them were some sophisticated graphs, similar to ECG. She shown them to Vinyl.
"What’s this?" DJ asked, "Not in the mood for playing “find ten differences”, ya know."
"The one on the left is your pattern of magic, which we obtained from database. As you may know, the basic pattern doesn’t change over time and is unique for every unicorn, much like the hoofprints," Twilight explained. "The other one was isolated from the lead pipe Bon-Bon was beaten with."
"Why are you showing me these?" asked Vinyl. Oh Celestia, do they…
"They’re very similar. About 90% of them is exactly the same. Surveillance says it’s enough to accuse you of attempted murder, but I wanted to investigate the remaining 10%. Look at this part…"
She shown terrified Vinyl a part of a graph almost exactly in the middle of the page. On “her” graph it consisted of small, regular peaks that later evolved into a short plateau before changing into bigger peaks appearing in a different frequency.
"So… what does it mean?"
"We’re not quite sure, but I have a theory that you’ve been possessed by somepony… or something," explained Twilight.
Just great.
"I’m turning into a Nightmare?"
At least my mane will be looking fabulous. Too bad nopony will see that on the Moon…
"No, it’s not that kind of possession. Do you remember everything from the last night?" asked Twilight.
"Not really. I told that big serious guy yesterday that all I remember from the break is drinking a cider and walking to the bathroom. Not that what I did there would be worth memorizing. If I, for example, had a dia-"
"Enough!" Krissy groaned with disgust. "That’s something we don’t want to know!"
"So, you don’t remember being in the bathroom, while Bon-Bon was probably attacked there during break… Vinyl, who gave you a cider?"
Sweet Celestia… do they think that I… did I…
"I don’t know… Ya know, everypony wants to have a drink with a DJ. Somepony just put it near my turntables and disappeared."
"In your blood, except of a small amount of alcohol and a bit larger amount of THC, we found something strange: several traces of substances that are used to brew potions… quite powerful potions actually," said Twilight. "Have you been taking any magical medications recently?"
Vinyl shook her head. Suddenly Krissy shouted:
"Wait! That reminds me of something!"
Both unicorns looked at her.
"Last week in Cloudsdale guards found a drunk, underaged filly, wandering on the outskirts of the town. I took care of her till her parents arrived."
"And? I don’t get it…" Vinyl sighed.
"She also said that somepony gave her cider and that she doesn’t remember anything. We thought at first it was a pedophile, but she wasn’t raped. And later, almost exactly below the place she was caught, that guy was found."
"Which guy? I’m not up to date with the news , ya know," said Vinyl. Soon I’ll be in the news myself. In the “Crime” column. Dirty Thunderstorm club."
"I know that place!" a faint smile appeared on Vinyl’s face, "I performed there once, they had to fly me home just after the show. Ya know, alcohol and cloud-walking spell just doesn’t mix well…" Not to mention that throwing up in mid-air isn’t something that ponies on the ground are fond of.
"Anyway after that they went to the sisters’ home, where one of them had… well, something what grown-up ponies do when they like each other…" she said, staring at Vinyl as if she was an overgrown foal. "…that guy came back to the hotel, where, few hours later he was woken up by our guards."
"So, you think that filly…" Twilight looked weakly at the psychologist.
"She might have killed him without knowing it. And without us knowing it."
"And you think that the same pony who gave her cider with that potion now used the same method to make Vinyl try to kill Bon-Bon?" asked Twilight.
"That’s horrible… using other ponies as tools… but it’s possible."
"Feint within a feint within a feint… Somepony who came up with such idea must be…"
"… fucking insane," said Vinyl flatly before Twilight could finish the sentence.
Author's Note
Dirty thunderstorm is a name of the actual weather phenomenon, and I think it's quite catchy name for a club.
There was only one reason he hadn’t left Cloudsdale yet. The biggest storm he ever calculated was about to begin, and he wanted to see how his calculations will work in practice.
As soon as it ends, I’m going to Stalliongrad. Or to Sankt Ponysburg, I’ve heard that white nights are pretty nice things to watch at this time of year.
The whole operation was very complex, all pegasi from Cloudsdale, Ponyville and Canterlot weather teams had to cooperate to gather the storm clouds from the half of Equestria above this sparsely inhabited part of land and put them in precisely computed formation and trigger the storm that would last for exactly two hours, four minutes and thirty-eight seconds. There were two aims pegasi wanted to achieve: to water the fields on the area below the storm and disarm the storm clouds that could otherwise cause much damage if left without supervision.
He listened absent-mindedly as Spitfire gives the last orders to the Alpha team, whose objective was to check if the location of the clouds is 100% correct and start the storm by bucking the clouds at exactly 6:00 PM, Canterlot Mean Time. Cloud Counter stared at the other cloud, floating at about a mile from them, where Bravo team was listening to the briefing. Even from the distance he could recognize the white and blue mane of one of the ponies.
***
"And then he said “if you were an angle, you’d be acute one”!"
"Mathematicians!" a yellow mare giggled. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. How were they supposed to accomplish the task, when most of the Bravo team was either a gossip club or (she noticed how Thunderlane was staring at Cloudchaser) Rejected Stallion Support Group.
Maybe it’s good that Scootaloo can’t see me now. The orange filly would probably give everything to see her idol leading the weather team in such a big operation, but, unfortunately she was still grounded by her parents after she’d ran away from a “sappy family meeting” and was later brought home by Royal Guards. Dash shrugged. She did many stupid things when she was a teenager, but nopony ever caught her. Perhaps her speed had something to do with that.
"OK, ponies listen to me!" she shouted. It wasn’t as powerful as Spitfire’s yelling, not to mention the Royal Canterlot Voice, but it worked. Cloudchaser and Parasol stopped talking, Thunderlane, his expression still resembling a sad puppy, turned his eyes at her. Only one pony didn’t seem to care, sitting on a cloud apart from other ponies with headphones in her ears.
"The same applies to you, Lighting Dust," said Rainbow Dash coldly and flown to her, "What are you even doing here?"
"Well, maybe I am a bit too reckless to be a Wonderbolt," the aquamarine pegasus deadpanned, "but that doesn’t mean that the Canterlot weather team doesn’t need the best fliers."
Rainbow Dash somehow resisted the temptation to show her who the best flier really was. The mission was more important at the moment.
"Well, I’m glad you managed to fend for yourself, Dust," she replied. The mare in question gave her a disrespectful smirk, but said nothing. Dash came back to her previous position and took a swig of her energy drink.
"Alright, everypony, synchronise your watches. It’s 5:30 PM now. Exactly at 5:35 we will fly under the storm clouds to check if there’s no one there. We warned the inhabitants, but if you find anypony either on the ground or in the air, tell them to hide before all Tartarus breaks loose. We have to go back here before 5:58, two minutes later the storm will start. If you lose yourself and run out of time, don’t try to be a hero, just land on the ground, take cover somewhere and wait till the storm’s over. We’ll be in radio contact, but for safety reasons, always remember to have at least two other ponies in the eyesight. Good luck everypony."
She could swear that Lighting Dust blew a raspberry at “safety reasons” but she shrugged it off. Some ponies never change. Sixteen pegasi took off and dived under the heavy grey clouds.
***
"T-minus 5 minutes and counting!" Spitfire announced. Members of Alpha team positioned themselves on the clouds. Echo team, consisting solely of Wonderbolts, whose task was to provide backup and rescue injured ponies, was waiting on a cloud that was also Spitfire’s and Cloud Counter’s base. In the distance, Charlie and Delta teams could be seen coming back from the patrol. Everything seemed in place, but Cloud Counter had doubts.
"Are you sure she’s competent enough?" he asked Spitfire, pointing at the grey mare with blonde mane standing on the cloud below them. Something about her frightened him.
"Derpy? Don’t worry, she knows how to deal with the storm clouds. Have you seen the Ponyville city hall recently?"
"Yeah. I think they renovated it…"
"Exactly. She somehow bucked the cloud so hard it blew almost the half of the roof off in one go. Such talents don’t go unnoticed," Spitfire lowered her voice to a whisper, "We only had to make sure she didn’t put her watch upside-down."
"Oh… ok," he murmured. Somehow this hadn’t calmed him down. He looked at his watch – it was 5:57.
"Where is Bravo team?"
"No idea," Spitfire took her radio. "Dash, are you ok? Where are you?"
It took a while before they heard a faint voice through a heavy static.
"We’re ok! Safe above the clouds!" was everything Rainbow Dash managed to say before the transmission was cut.
"Safe, but, judging by the static, far away from us," concluded Cloud Counter. "One minute to go… thirty seconds… twenty… 10… 9… 8…"
When he reached “zero”, ponies from the Alpha team bucked their clouds simultaneously. Cloud Counter saw the lightning and heard the thunder almost exactly at the same time, for a moment it stunned him.
"Chocks away! Bloody hell, that was loud!" he shouted to Spitfire, who smiled, watching the spectacle.
"Is everything good so far?" she asked.
"All according to the plan!"
Suddenly, about a mile from them a rainbow appeared from between the clouds. It began approaching them, barely avoiding hitting the ponies from Alpha team. Derpy was caught in a turbulence it had produced and entered a spin, but at the same time Soarin took off and caught her before she fell to the now defusing storm clouds.
"Is that also a part of the plan?" Spitfire asked.
"Well, it might be some phenomenon I couldn’t predict, because chaos theory…" he started, but then the rainbow trail suddenly tackled him to the surface of the cloud. Rainbow trail dissipated and they saw Rainbow Dash, her mane in a mess and her fur slightly charred. A deep cut ran through the side of her face.
"What the fuck was that?" she screamed at Cloud Counter. "Why did you started the storm earlier without letting me know? My whole team is down there because of it, you son of-"
"Rainbow Dash!" Spitfire shouted, "What are you talking about? By the way, if you want him to answer, stop strangling him."
"Oh… sorry, ma’am," blue pegasus loosened her grip. Cloud Counter took few deep breaths and put his glasses back on.
"We started exactly at six o’clock," he said, still panting heavily, "Besides, it was you, who told us on the radio that your team is above the storm!"
"What? I haven’t said that! I don’t remember saying that! We went for a patrol, and suddenly there’s a bucking lighting exploding five hooves from my face!"
Cloud Counter noticed surprised look on Spitfire’s face. So, I’m not the only one who has no idea what the bloody hell is going on.
"Dash, we all heard you saying that, so…" the Wonderbolts’ leader started, but was rather aggressively interrupted.
"It doesn’t matter now! We have to go back there and help my team!" the cyan pegasus took off, ready to dive into the raging tempest.
"We can’t! It’s too dangerous!" Spitfire replied, "Besides, they probably landed on the ground, as we advised them."
"Exactly. Also, on 7:30 most clouds will run out of lightning, so it’ll be much safer to check on your team then. We’ll fly to retrieve them and Bob’s your uncle," Cloud Counter added. Rainbow Dash was confused.
"What? Who’s Bob?"
"Don’t worry, it’s one of those Trottingham sayings this guy uses when he talks to a lass whom he finds especially attractive," Spitfire explained. Dash muttered something that navy-blue stallion understood as “go and buck yourself, perverted egghead”. Spitfire probably heard that too but said nothing, noticing suddenly shocked expression of stallion in question.
"What happened, mate?" she asked.
"Cloudchaser… she’s there!" was his only answer.
"What?"
"I need to see your watch. You told your team to synchronise them, didn’t you?"
"Yes, but what…"
"That!" he shown her his own watch, showing 6:24. She looked at hers – it was 6:19.
"You synchronised it with mine during the meeting of team leaders?"
Dash was shocked.
"Yes, but… I don’t understand…"
"So, when we started the storm at six, you and your team thought it was 5:55…"
"There’s one thing I still don’t get," Spitfire interrupted, "The radio message – you said that you don’t remember saying it."
"Yeah. In fact I barely remember anything except the briefing."
"Now, that’s proper weird," Cloud Counter said.
"Who cares? We need to go there and save them!"
Cloud Counter was torn apart. He knew it was too dangerous to fly through the mayhem they created, but image of the certain mare, fighting alone against the lightning and strong wind was causing pain his heart.
"We must wait… for an hour," he said powerlessly.
***
At half past seven there was still raining, but about half of the clouds dissipated, and other half turned much lighter, making flying in such weather much safer. The Echo team took off and began searching the ground.
Rainbow Dash noted with some sort of satisfaction that Cloud Counter is rather mediocre flier. Although his weight was helping him resist the crosswind, his speed wasn’t impressive, and when he tried to pull a sharp turn, he hit the cloud, leaving a pony-shaped hole in it. Yet, he recovered quickly, doing his best to follow her and Spitfire.
First ponies they found were Thunderlane and Snowflake. When they lost the sight of the rest of the team they landed in the field, and hid themselves in the maize.
"Have you seen anypony else?" Spitfire asked. Snowflake responded with his trademark “YEAH!”, and, to Dash’s surprise, continued:
"Blossomforth landed in the neighbouring field. I’ve seen ‘Chaser and her sister somewhere in the north, but I’ve lost them when we landed."
Not a talkative guy, huh? Well, maybe such accidents change ponies, Cloud Counter thought. Together, they went to meet Blossomforth, who injured her wing, but had no other wounds. Soarin and Fleetfoot picked her up on a stretcher and took her to the field hospital. The rest of the team was about to resume the searching, but suddenly they saw some pegasus flying to them at the full speed.
"Flitter! Thank Celestia you’re ok!" shouted Cloud Counter. Grayish blue mare landed in front of them, or rather tried to land, ending up falling on her plot. She quickly stood up; she’d lost her bow somewhere and was covered in mud. Cloud Counter almost fainted when he saw that she was crying.
"Is something wrong with your sister?" he asked weakly.
"No… she’s ok… but Parasol is… is…" she fell on the ground again, sobbing loudly. Rainbow Dash also felt tears on her face. She barely knew the yellow mare, but she realised that her error might have caused her death.
"How it happened?" asked Spitfire.
"She got struck… we caught her, but it was too late…"
"Am I interrupting something?"
Everypony looked around. When they were listening to Flitter, they were approached by several Royal Guards. Their commander, a tall, white unicorn said:
"Good afternoon everypony. My name is Surveillance. We were called by some farmer, claiming that there’s a dead pegasus on his tree. It seems to me that you might know something about this… phenomenon."
Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. Great. One of those plotholes Twilight told me about. If he starts telling dead foal jokes to cheer us up, I’m gonna beat the tar out of him.
Spitfire tried to remain calm.
"We indeed had a… casualty, but the circumstances were different. Unless there’s another one…" her voice cracked when she realised that.
"Oh great… we’ll have to split the team," Surveillance said carelessly. "Can somepony come with us to that farm, maybe we’ll identify…" he was interrupted by a magenta flash. Twilight Sparkle appeared and, slightly confused after a long-distance teleportation, looked at everypony.
"Rainbow Dash! You’re alive!" she exclaimed.
"Sure I am, don’t get sappy about that…" pegasus muttered, cuddled by a purple unicorn.
"What happened here?"
"We were about to find out," said Surveillance coldly. Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a quick “we-need-to-talk-about-it-later” look and they followed the Royal Guards officer on his way to the farm.
***
It was worse than Rainbow Dash expected. A charred, pony-sized lump hanged from the tree lifelessly, all six limbs spread at weird angles. The pegasus was probably hit by lighting in mid-air, and fell, impaling themselves on the bough. Twilight could feel her stomach turn when she saw a large piece of the branch protruding from the body’s chest. Surveillance, on the other hoof, was unflappable.
Author's Note
Alternative chapter title: "Lighting bites the Dust".
Go to the bathroom.
She went to the bathroom. Several ponies waved hooves at her, but she ignored them, hurrying to the door.
Take the pipe.
A red aura of magic embraced one of the pipes, levitating it to her eye level.
Go back there, find a turquoise unicorn and kill her.
"Why?"
Not your business. Do it. Kill Lyra Heartstrings.
The pipe, still held by her magic, did several swings.
"No."
Do it! Now!
Before she could say another “no”, her vision blurred. She teetered and had to lean against the wall to avoid falling down.
"Vinyl?"
Her vision sharpened again. She saw a cream-coloured mare coming out of one of the cabins.
"Vinyl, are you ok?"
Vinyl could swear that the disembodied voice muttered some curses under its breath. She tried to say something, like “watch out!” or “run away!”, but suddenly her throat tightened, as if somepony squeezed it. Her vision became blurry again, her ears were filled with the disembodied voice, now yelling “KILL HER!”. She could only watch the pipe, wielded by her magic, hitting the cream mare’s side. She heard the loud, sickening crack of fracturing ribs, and the mare fell on the floor with a look of betrayal in her eyes.
"What the hay are you…" she cried, spitting blood. She tried desperately to reach stunned Vinyl with her hoof, crawling on the floor tiles.
The pipe hit her head. The last bits of consciousness left her and she laid still on the ground.
"Bon-Bon!" Vinyl tried to scream, but her squeezed throat let her do only a whisper. The pipe, released from the magic aura, fell jingling on the tiles. She wanted to help the unconscious mare, but the invisible bonds held her still.
Get outta there through the window. Use the back door, go on stage and start the second part of the gig. Forget what happened here.
***
Vinyl woke up. For a moment she was staring at the ceiling, panting heavily. Octavia muttered something in her sleep and turned over.
Forget what happened here.
She stood up and went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water and downed it in one go. She looked at the yesterday’s newspaper lying on the worktop. The storm of the century claims two lives.
Thank you, Equestria Daily for a daily dose of heart-warming news.
She opened one of the cupboards and moved the mugs in the back of it with her magic, to reveal a pack of cigarettes hidden behind them. Since the night she was arrested, she neither drank a drop of alcohol nor smoked. She had quit smoking when Octavia moved in, but still had several packs stashed all over a house in case of cigarette emergency.
She came to the balcony and lit up a cigarette.
Good, old Tavi. She bailed her out of jail without asking her anything. Vinyl still felt guilty about that, especially because when she wanted to give her money back, the cellist refused.
"I took the money from our swear jar," she said. "It is you who mostly contributes to it anyway."
Yeah, right. Even with that fifty bits note Tavi had to put there because of the speech she delivered when she overheard that one of the spectators called her a fillyfooler after the concert, the money in the swear jar wouldn’t be enough. Vinyl blew out the smoke and watched the ephemeral shapes it formed in the cold night’s air.
Tavi is always there for me. And I…
She recalled the years of coming home late, drunk or stoned, all the words she shouldn’t have said to the grey cellist. Every time she was hung over, finding out how acidic the contents of her stomach were, Octavia was there to make her tea, hold her mane to protect it from getting dirty and never said anything. Sure, she once hit her with a cello, but drove her to the hospital afterwards.
And now I almost killed Bon-Bon. Well, technically someone used her to kill Bon-Bon, but still it was her, who took the cider with a potion in it. If she was wiser, remembering what she was told about accepting drinks from strangers…
Bonnie is still in a coma… And poor Lyra, she’s in the nuthouse. I failed all of you…
She closed her eyes, leaning closer to the barrier.
Wait. That voice told me to kill Lyra and I resisted it. But why? And how?
She opened her eyes, stared again at the dirty backyard under their balcony and tossed the cigarette butt over the balustrade, watching its short fall from the first floor. Then she levitated the phone from the kitchen and dialled the number she was given before leaving the arrest.
"Krissy? Hello. I know it’s late. It’s me, Vinyl Scratch. There’s something I want to tell you…"
***
When the grey pegasus approached the station, it was still almost empty. The only guard in the building was Short Shock, nodding off over the large pile of reports and forms.
"Hi there, Shorty," Krissy chirped, "What’s up?"
"Work, as you can see," he yawned, and took a closer look at one of the pieces of paper on his desk. "Cardiac dysrhythmia… How do you write “dysrhythmia”?"
He thanked her and began silently spell the word that sounded like “impalement”. Krissy started to trot to her office, when he paused and said:
"By the way, that crazy unicorn wanted me to tell you to come to the lab as soon possible,"
"Surveillance? He is still here?"
"Boss? No, he left at 3 AM, leaving me with all this…" he pointed the papers at his desk, "I meant the other crazy unicorn."
"Oh… I get it," she replied and flew to the lab.
The door was closed. She knocked and waited for somepony to answer, staring at the old “Celestia wants you to join the Royal Guards” poster hung on the wall near lab entrance.
The door opened.
"Hello there! Come inside and wait a minute,"
The psychologist did so, watching Twilight with dismay. Unicorn’s mane was unkempt and her pupils were shrunk to the size of pinpricks. Moving like a sleepwalker, she went to the coffee machine and inserted a coin into it.
"Twilight, dear, are you OK?" Krissy asked. She noticed several styrofoam cups laying around. Unicorn nodded dazedly, watching the coffee filling another cup.
"Twilight, don’t tell me you stayed here for the whole night…"
"I did," she said, coming back to the lab. She sat on her haunches and took a sip of her coffee.
"Why? Something happened?"
Twilight lifted an ordinary-looking bottle of energy drink with her magic.
"I got this!" she said proudly.
"What? I understand coffee, but drinking those? Who knows what they put in them…"
"No, it’s not this. I got it from the crime scene. You know, that storm two days ago…"
"Yeah, don’t need to tell me. Yesterday I talked with some ponies from that weather team… What’s with that bottle?"
"My friend Rainbow Dash drank from it and suffered similar symptoms as Vinyl. I analysed the contents and found out that there’s still potion in it. I identified most of the ingredients and I hope this will help us with finding the killer – the Toolsmith, as I call him."
"Great! Speaking of Vinyl Scratch – she called me tonight. She had sort of a dream…" the psychologist told Twilight about the vision, mentioning that actually Lyra Heartstrings was supposed to be the victim. For a moment the unicorn stared at her absent-mindedly. Krissy thought that she ran out of caffeine again, but after a short pause lavender pony said:
"Well, I think that makes sense. You know, when we arrived to the crime scene, I talked with that mathematician…"
***
It just stopped raining. Cloud Counter sat on the ground, watching the Royal Guards walking through the crime scene. They removed Lighting Dust’s body from the tree, but Rainbow Dash was still sitting there, devastated, with the purple unicorn trying to comfort her. The mathematician always had a soft spot for unicorns (something that Rainstorm used to call “horny for hornies”), and maybe in different circumstances…
Cloudchaser, remember?
Oh Celestia! When Rainstorm was found dead he totally forgot about the sisters, thinking that they’ll never meet again. But when he realised that Cloudchaser’s life was in danger, he felt something he had never felt before.
His run of thoughts was suddenly interrupted when he saw that Rainbow Dash flew away and purple pony was now approaching him.
"Hello. My name’s Twilight Sparkle, and I’m a consulting detective. You’re Cloud Counter, aren’t you?"
"Yes, that’s me. Something new about Rainstorm?" he asked. For a moment he thought about putting on his accent, but something about Twilight Sparkle told him that it wouldn’t work.
"Maybe. I have a few questions for you. Do you know this mare?"
She levitated a photo of cream earth pony with two-coloured mane to him. He examined it carefully.
"No, I don’t think so,"
"How about this one?"
He looked at a minty-green unicorn mare smiling at him from the picture. Then something hit him.
"I think I’ve met her once, about a year ago."
***
"Hello there, Cloudy, what brings you here? A storm? A tornado?" Berry Punch chirped and began pouring him a drink.
I’ve been here ten times this year, and the only pony I know is a barmare. What does it say about me?
"You won’t believe me if I tell you that I’m on vacation, will you?"
"You? I have to talk to my informants: it seems that Tartarus froze over and nopony told me!"
"I assure you, if we ever try to freeze Tartarus over, you’ll be first to know about it. They’d probably ask me to plan such a big operation," he laughed.
"Would that be even possible?"
"Well, as they say in weather teams: there are no impossible things, only unprofitable ones…"
"Like running this bar," she sighed and took a quick sip from the bottle she kept hidden under the counter.
"Is it really that bad?" he asked. He knew that Berry liked to complain about her finances, but this was mainly an attempt to increase sales. Cloud Counter had an unpleasant thought that her interest in weather calculations was also a trick to persuade him to buy more cider, but he didn’t care about that. At least he had someone to talk with.
"Well, it’s better now, since that musician comes here to play," she said, "You’ll see her tonight,"
"A musician? Now you have my attention, Berry,"
"Yeah, but don’t try anything. I assure you, she won’t be interested. Besides, what happened with that funny student that was here with you last time?"
His expression suddenly faded.
"That’s something I don’t really want to talk about," he said, "and why do you think that she won’t be interested?"
"Well," Berry leaned to him and lowered her voice, usual thing when she was telling a gossip, "She doesn’t really swing that way, if you know what I mean,"
"Oh… well, you can’t always get what you want," he sighed, when Berry turned around to make drinks for a group of impatient pegasi, whom he recognized as members of local weather team.
Suddenly a cheerful sound of ponies’ talks that was filling the pub trailed away, and everypony turned to the small stage in the corner of the room. An aquamarine unicorn was sitting there on a stool, her hind legs hanging from it in an awkward manner. Her cutie mark was a lyre, similar to one she was holding.
"Hello," she said shyly, "My name is Lyra and, well, I’m here to play you some songs…"
"Not a mare of many words, huh?" Berry whispered. At the same moment Lyra started to play. Cloud Counter wasn’t very interested in music, but he had to admit that the song was beautiful. It resembled a simple folk tune, but as it progressed, it was becoming more and more complex. It seemed that the whole insecurity left Lyra at the moment she touched the strings. She started to improvise, adding various ornaments to the melody. Her horn lit, as she used her magic to play additional notes. The song reached its final and Lyra ended it with several arpeggios.
For a moment the audience stood in awe and then they began clapping their hooves. Lyra started to play another song, this time a bit calmer.
"I must talk to her!" exclaimed Cloud Counter.
"Told ya, you have no chance," Berry said, "By the way, her marefriend wouldn’t like that. Have you heard what they say about earth ponies?"
"I heard a lot of things they say about them, for example, that their livers are made of steel. Other sources state, that it’s not about the livers but…"
"Enough!" Berry laughed, "Liver thing might be true, I don’t know how about the latter – maybe I haven’t met the right stallions…" She was very proud of her ability to hold her liquor, Cloud Counter knew that very well. "But what I meant is their legendary strength. You’d be grounded for months if Bon-Bon kicked you,"
"Listen, Berry, I just want to talk, so…"
"Yeah, that’s how they call it nowadays… I know you too well, naughty boy…"
Cloud Counter shrugged and started to listen to Lyra’s song again. An hour passed and a bit tired unicorn left the stage and trotted to the bar. The mathematician was ready.
"Hello," he said to her, using his trademark accent, "may I offah you a drink?" He noticed Berry facehoofing behind Lyra’s back.
"Just water please," unicorn said.
"That was absolutely smashing! Nevah heard anyone playing lyre so well," he exclaimed. In fact he never heard anyone playing a lyre before, but that wasn’t important.
"Thanks," Lyra replied and started drinking her water. Berry sent him her “I told ya” look and said:
"This here gentlecolt is Cloud Counter, a mathematician, weather pony and incurable playcolt, who, despite his accent, isn’t even from Trottingham, if I recall correctly."
Lyra laughed.
"Thank you very much, miss Berryshine," he said sarcastically, feeling that his face is now bright red, "Indeed I am a weathah… weather pony," he corrected himself when he saw barmare’s expression, "Currently on vacation, looking for someone to show me the local sights,"
"Too bad, I’m not the best guide," Lyra said, "In fact I spend most of the time at home, playing my lyre or researching humans. Bon-Bon says that I should go out more, but I don’t really feel like,"
"Humans? Who are they?" he asked.
"Here we go…" Berry Punch groaned.
***
"We spent rest of the evening talking about humans, mathematics and such stuff. Then she went home and I went back to my room. I’ve never seen her since that time,"
"Wait a minute, you said that she mentioned Bon-Bon," Twilight said.
"Yeah, but it’s nothing special, I think. She was her marefriend after all,"
She shown him the photo of the first mare again.
"This is Bon-Bon. She was assaulted three days ago and is now in coma,"
"I think I’ve read about this. They were suspecting a DJ?"
Twilight sighed. She had to explain this to many ponies before and didn’t feel like doing this again.
"Yes, but it’s much more complicated than it seems. And, what’s most interesting," she paused, staring directly at Cloud Counter, "So far, all the victims are somehow connected with you."
***
"So now, when we know that Lyra was supposed to be killed, it makes even more sense," Krissy noticed. "Celestia, someone must be hating this guy…"
"Exactly. So far, the Toolsmith made that filly kill his friend, tried to make Vinyl kill Lyra and probably sabotaged the weather team to kill Cloudchaser or Flitter…" Twilight stopped, thinking something through.
"It’s a psychopath – the storm case shows it clearly, Toolsmith gives no buck about other ponies who might die," Krissy added, "By the way, how were the examinations of the potion?"
"Well, there are common ingredients, but skilfully blended. The potion has no taste, doesn’t change the properties of the drink it’s in… It was prepared to work for pegasi, that probably explains why Vinyl was able to partially resist its effect, and other side effects like this dream. Also, I have a theory that if an influenced pony suffers any kind of wound or shock, the potion ceases to work. That explains why Rainbow Dash regained her consciousness when the lighting exploded near her. The Toolsmith might be an unicorn or even zebra…"
"I don’t think so," Krissy smiled.
"Why?"
"Have you seen many zebras in Cloudsdale recently?"
"Oh… ok. I think I need to sleep… You think it might be a pegasus?" asked Twilight.
"I don’t know. Pegasi doesn’t make great potion brewers, but maybe, if guided properly…"
"I wonder who he'll choose next… Cloud Counter says he doesn’t have many friends. Maybe Berry Punch?" said Twilight, yawning. Krissy looked at her anxiously.
"Berry Punch? I don’t know… And you should really go home now. You won’t catch the Toolsmith if you work yourself to death,"
"That would be difficult, she’s an experienced barmare, who keeps a wooden club under the counter, next to the bottle of vodka. Everypony who’d try to attack her would end up in Dr Stable’s ward. It’d be easier to give her a poisoned cider. Maybe he’ll try to kill Lyra or Cloudchaser again?"
"Maybe. I’ll talk to Hot Pursuit about giving them police protection," said Krissy, "And now, Twi, go home!"
Author's Note
I swear, it's the last time I'm putting flashback in a flashback...
Twilight woke up in a dark bedroom. For a moment she was looking around, trying to get her bearings, but it was difficult because she was unable to see anything.
Is it night already?
She lit her horn, and she saw that the blinds were closed, so she opened them with a spell. The position of the sun was indicating that it was early afternoon, so she’d been sleeping for about eight hours. She heard her stomach rumbling – since yesterday evening her diet consisted mostly of excessive amounts of coffee and her body threatened to go on strike – so she decided to go downstairs.
"Spike! Are you here?" she called. The dragon emerged from between the shelves, holding a book in his hand.
"Hello, Sleeping Beauty," he laughed, "since you became a consulting detective, you’re quite popular – hour barely passed since you’ve fallen asleep and, like, ten ponies tried to meet you."
"What? You should’ve woken me up!"
"Don’t worry, that wasn’t anything important. First, somepony called Surveillance called and said that if you want to give protection to five ponies at once, you have to conjure few additional guards for him. When I told him that it is scientifically impossible and advised him to use Mirror Pond instead, he…"
"Let me guess," Twilight interrupted him, "He explained to you, sparing no details, where exactly can you stick the Mirror Pond?"
"How do you know? I wanted to tell him that this is not only scientifically, but also geographically impossible, but he hung up."
"Let’s say that I know that guy. What else?"
"Well," Spike scratched his head, "Then Nurse Redheart came here to say that Bon-Bon had woken up."
"And you said that nothing important happened! Is she all right?"
"Nurse Redheart? She seemed ok, I’d say she lost few pounds since I last saw her. Why are you asking?"
Twilight sighed. She noticed that the book he was holding was called “1000 ways to impress a mare”.
I need to warn Rarity.
"No, I meant Bon-Bon!"
"I know, right? Her ribs still need a time to heal, and she’s weakened after a coma, but mentally she’s ok, judging by the fact that in her first words she asked to bring her that insane DJ so she could buck her so hard that they’d find her sunglasses in her cerebellum," Spike explained.
"She actually said “cerebellum”?" Twilight looked interested.
"I don’t think so. But Nurse Redheart noted that she didn’t exactly say “insane”…"
"So, at least, she remembers what happened to her. Somepony else?"
"Hot Pursuit, telling that they brought Lyra to meet Bon-Bon, and that she’s protecting them herself, no matter what Surveillance says. Rainbow Dash was here too, when I told her that you were sleeping she said that you’d find her in the pub. Oh, and then came a pair of Luna’s witnesses, they left us some leaflets, if you’re interested…"
"Rainbow Dash? How’s she?"
"She said she was all right, but something about her seemed off. She used the door instead of crashing into the library,"
"Well, she’s still depressed after the death of those ponies," explained Twilight.
"I don’t get it," said Spike, "Lighting Dust almost killed you, why does she mourn her that much?"
"You know, she was in her team, so Dash felt responsible for her, and…"
"So, it’s a loyalty thing?"
"Exactly. Besides, she probably feels that she caused her death, either by ordering her to fly there, or by not going to help her immediately. What happened in the past doesn’t matter now," Twilight finished her short lecture, and trotted to the kitchen.
"So, anyway, she went to drown her sorrows," Spike summarized. Suddenly a loud “crash!” was heard from the upstairs. Twilight, who was just plundering the fridge, almost choked on a tomato. She swallowed it somehow, and looked up, ready to cope with anything that could emerge from the first floor.
"Seems that Rainbow is much better now!" said Spike.
Indeed she was. At the same moment the blue pegasus fell down from the stairs. She stood on her hooves shakingly, blew her mane out of her eyes and said in a slurred voice:
"Hellptwitherzproblemiffberry…"
"What?" asked Twilight,
"I guess she has a problem with Berry," Spike said, "No money to pay for her cider… or rather ciders."
Suddenly he noticed the shocked expression of the unicorn. Before he could ask her what had happened, she disappeared in a magenta flare.
"And what should I do with you?" he asked Rainbow Dash, who was doing her best to focus her vision on him.
"Dunnomayybeadrink?" was all she managed to say.
"Yeah. And one for me too…"
***
Twilight appeared exactly in front of Sharp Shock, who jumped away from her, hitting one of the tables and almost knocking it over.
"Don’t worry, we have everything under control," the guard said. "As you know, the barmare here likes to drink like a fish when no one’s looking. Seems that somepony spiked her drink with a poison,"
"Is she alive?"
"Yes, good thing that Hot Pursuit sent me here. I called a doctor immediately, and that crazy pegasus said that she’d fetch you," he pointed at the broken window.
"Indeed, that lad saved her life," said the paramedic, a green stallion with a lighting and a heart for a cutie mark, who was levitating a stretcher with Berry. The barmare was conscious and Twilight came to her to ask her if she had seen the perpetrator.
"Nope, but just today something strange happened," said the purple mare weakly, "You know, they wrote about Cloudy in the paper and his ex-girlfriend appeared here, just few hours ago."
"His ex-girlfriend? Who’s she?"
"I don’t remember her name… but she used to be a psychology student…"
Twilight suddenly cursed under her breath. Her throat became dry when she slowly asked:
"Do you know where she went?"
"No idea…"
A sudden realisation struck Twilight.
"I must go to the hospital!" she exclaimed and teleported herself.
"Hey! You could at least ask me if I need a lift!" Berry shouted.
***
The hospital room was dark and silent, except of quiet snoring of a pony, sleeping on a chair in an awkward position. Bon-Bon looked at her warmly. No one told her exactly what happened when she was in a coma, but from the talks of Lyra and doctors she figured most of it herself. Poor, old Lyra… Bon-Bon noticed that she now uses her hooves rather than the magic. She had asked Dr Stable if it was normal and he told her that it was a result of shock.
"But soon she’ll overcome it, I think. She receives help from the psychologist and her mental state improves," he added.
The psychologist. Bon-Bon hadn’t seen her yet, but she heard a lot about her. She was a forensic psychologist who worked with Twilight Sparkle on her case (Lyra had a hard time explaining to her that Vinyl was actually innocent). She was eager to meet her.
The door opened. Bon-Bon looked at it, only to see a dark silhouette of a pegasus, who approached Lyra, muttering something. Bon-Bon raised her bandaged head a bit.
"Hello there. Are you sleeping? No problem, you don’t need to be awake to comprehend in this stage of therapy… It’ll cure you from everything, forever…"
Bon-Bon was terrified when she saw the glint of light on the blade, raised above her loved one. With a great determination she grabbed the bed’s frame with her front hooves and threw a powerful buck with her hind legs, aiming at the pegasus’ side. Her whole body screamed in pain, she fell on the floor near her bed feeling that her ribs cracked again.
The pegasus hit the wall, recovered quickly, but the noise woke Lyra up. When the attacker raised the hoof with a knife again, she acted merely by instinct: a golden beam of magic hit the pegasus’ right wing, penetrated through it, and struck the wall, leaving a scorched mark and several bloody stains on it. The wounded pony screamed in pain, but still tried to reach Lyra, who ducked in her seat, when another beam, this time magenta-coloured, blinded everypony for a while and hit the attacker’s head, partially burning a mane, and sending the pony flying across the room.
Twilight turned the light on, revealing Bon-Bon lying on the floor and panting heavily and Lyra, who was standing on all four legs, aiming her horn at Krissy, who was reclining against an opposite wall.
"Krissy… That’s… that’s impossible," gasped the green unicorn, and turned to Bon-Bon, who was trying unsuccessfully to get up. They heard the hoofsteps on the corridor and Doctor Stable and Nurse Redheart ran into the room.
"What the hell happened here?"
"Help Bonnie!" Lyra shouted. Twilight trotted to Krissy and examined her wounds. At first she thought that most of the blood staining pegasus’ coat and dripping on the floor comes from the wing wound, but then she noticed something far worse.
A knife handle protruding from pegasus’ chest.
"Doctor! Come here, quick!" Twilight shouted. Krissy half opened her eyes, looked at her chest and whispered something to the unicorn, her breath slow and jerky. She coughed up some blood and rested her head on Twilight’s hooves, staring at her, or rather right through her. Everypony, including Bon-Bon looked at them.
"What did she say?" asked Nurse Redheart, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Tears were flowing from the unicorn’s eyes, yet her answer was almost wiped out of emotions:
"Feint within a feint within a feint."
Author's Note
In fact, Krissy was first supposed to appear only in chapter 2 as a homage to "The Secret Life of Rarity" but then her character became more important, something I don't really like (and that's basically why she had to die).
"So, Ms Sparkle, let me tell you what I figured out from this whole mess: our late psychologist used to be Cloud Counter’s girlfriend, and, Berry Punch’s long story short, their parting was rather rough. So, instead of strangling him in his sleep with a cloud, or whatever crazy pegasi do to each other, she came up with a wonderful idea, that she’ll kill all his future marefriends, not-really-marefriends and that poor guy whose body we scraped off of the ground. My Cloudsdale counterpart just informed me, that they found a large stash of ingredients in her house. They’re examining them at the moment, but it figures that they’re the same substances you identified as potion ingredients,"
Surveillance paused, staring at Twilight. She said nothing, so he continued.
"She was the first pony to talk with that drunk filly after she unknowingly killed Rainstorm. I think she also talked with her before that. She gave the cider with a potion to a DJ, spiced Rainbow Dash’s energy drink and then, when she found out how ineffective her method proved to be, decided to go on a good, old killing spree, luckily was stopped by our consulting detective and died from her own knife. Case closed," he smiled triumphantly.
"I don’t think so," said Twilight suddenly.
"Why not?"
"She wasn’t in Ponyville when Bon-Bon was attacked. She only arrived at the station after one of the guards called her,"
"Oh really? Who can prove that? She could have a mobile phone, or whatever,"
"And there was no possibility she could sabotage the storm,"
"Again, who can prove that?" Surveillance was annoyed. His theory was perfect and that civilian dared to undermine it!
"You, sir. She was at the station, talking with Vinyl Scratch just before she was bailed out of jail," this time it was Twilight who was smiling triumphantly.
"Oh sh- it doesn’t matter! She practically proven herself guilty when she went to the hospital with a knife!"
"I’m not sure. I wondered about her last words… feint within a feint within a feint ,"
"That sounds like something my swordsmanship teacher would say…"
"Exactly. I suppose that you ordered an autopsy?" she asked.
"Yes, but it’ll take some time to obtain all results, like toxicology. If you want you can visit this old lunatic Dr Tulp, but for me the case is almost closed."
***
Although she tried not to show this to Surveillance, last few days weren’t particularly good for Twilight Sparkle. She teleported back from the hospital still covered in Krissy’s blood, and making no attempt to clean herself up, trotted to her bedroom and lay down on her bed crying. She barely noticed that Rainbow Dash and Spike are still in her kitchen. They hadn’t noticed her either, being too busy singing a terribly out-of-tune version of a popular song about things one cannot do to a hedgehog.
She spent the whole night thinking about the recent events. Her conversation with Krissy, when she mentioned that Berry Punch and Lyra might be the next victims. Did I gave her ideas? she thought. But why she went there to kill them herself, when she could give a potion to anypony? Unless…
Twilight Sparkle woke up in the darkness, but her mind was bright like Celestia’s sun. She had a theory and needed only proof.
***
Dr Tulp’s office was located in the underground part of Ponyville Hospital. It was barely visited by any patients, and its old, scratched door was almost indistinguishable from the door of nearby magazine of medical equipment. The only detail telling Twilight that she was in the right place was an inscription above the entrance:
Taceant colloquia, effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae
“Well, optimistic…” she murmured, entering the room. The old unicorn with a greyish mane was sitting at his desk, reading a book. In the middle of the basement stood a metal table, there was also cold chamber by the opposite wall.Guten Morgen , young pony,” he said, taking off his glasses. His voice was low and deep, he also had slightly foreign accent.
“Err… good morning, Dr Tulp, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m a consulting…”
“Oh, I heard about you,” he stated calmly, still observing her, “That young politieagent Surveillance told me that you’ll visit me. He even hoped that you’d stay for a little longer,”
In one of those fridges, considering his sense of humour, she thought. The pathologist continued:
“I’ve also read about that… accident on the ward. Psychologist attacking her patient in the hospital always makes a good story for the news, especially when someone dies in the process. I’ve heard that if it wasn’t for young Dr Stable, I’d have two bodies here…”
“Yeah, bucking someone is not healthy when one just woke up from a coma…” Twilight agreed.
“Precies . Talking about the bodies…” he trotted to the cold chamber and opened one of the drawers. Twilight followed him and stared at the dead pegasus lying there.
It is sometimes said, that dead ponies look as if they were sleeping peacefully. Dr Tulp had washed the blood off, but bruises, large wound covering a half of Krissy’s right wing and burnt mane contradicted this image. On her chest, near the knife wound, a sewn, Y-shaped cut was visible.
“Not really nice, isn’t it?”, Dr Tulp said, “The cause of death was the knife, but this,” he pointed at Krissy’s wing, “wasn’t very good for her, either. As I was told, Ms Heartstrings just woke up and hit her instinctively with the pure magical energy, while the other beam she was hit with was far more sophisticated – designed to stun rather than kill.”
“I know,” said Twilight, her voice trembling, “I fired it.”
“Good attempt, but rather unnecessary. You know, pegasi’s wings are fascinating organs – in fact, I wrote some papers about them – their muscles need large amounts of oxygen, and they must react to every blow of wind, any change of air pressure – so they’re filled with blood vessels and nerve endings. But what’s their force is also their weakness – they’re extremely sensitive, to the point they can reflect pony’s mood, the phenomenon known as alae erectum or, more commonly, as…"
“Dr Tulp, I know what it’s called,” said Twilight, blushing slightly. I hang out with Rainbow Dash too much to not know.
“Oh… ok. Anyway, Ms Sparkle, if you ever want to hurt the pegasus, aim at the wings.”
“No, thanks. After all I went through I doubt if I’ll ever cast such a spell at anypony. Dr Tulp, I came here because I wondered if you found something strange in her blood.”
“Strange? Not really. Some common substances, probably medicines. However, they disappeared from the samples really quickly – when I wanted to repeat the tests, I found no trace of them. Ms Sparkle, are you all right?”
Twilight stood near the cold chamber, her mouth agape.
Well, there are common ingredients, but skilfully blended.
I have a theory that if an influenced pony suffers any kind of wound or shock, the potion ceases to work.
Feint within a feint within a feint.
“Ms Sparkle?”
***
“No, I won’t stay here overnight!”
“Ms Sparkle, Dr Tulp brought you here looking as if you suddenly woke up on his table! I won’t release you without at least basic examinations!” Dr Stable insisted.
“I only passed out! That’s not a big deal!”
“Listen, Twilight. You’ve been through a lot of crap recently,” he said a bit calmer, but fury was still visible in his eyes, “I’ve also heard about your… rather unhealthy lifestyle. Primum non nocere , that’s what I was taught. Releasing you now would be a harm,”
“Well, Doctor, I understand that you’re worrying, but I need to solve this case. When I’ll be done, I’ll come here, eat healthy food, go to sleep early, whatever you want. But now I need to go and check something!”
“Well, you’re an adult and I can’t keep you here against your will. But I’m worried about you. You found something out at Tulp’s office and passed out. What if the next discovery will be even worse?”
“Nothing can be worse, Doctor,” Twilight replied and left the ward.
***
The detached house she was heading to stood in the outskirts of Ponyville, and, like other houses in the neighbourhood, was surrounded by a large garden. When she approached it, she heard a cello playing somewhere on the first floor of it. She also felt something resembling a distant echo of an earthquake.
Twilight, once again, started to think about her plan. Krissy was definitely a victim of the Toolsmith, now it was time to reveal his, or her identity. The method she invented was rather unconventional, but she hoped it’d work.
She knocked the door. The cello music trailed away, and a moment later the grey pony opened the door. Her similarity to Krissy was so striking that for a moment Twilight felt that she may faint again.
“Good afternoon,” grey mare said. She had a trottingham accent, which sounded much more natural than Cloud Counter’s, “Twilight Sparkle, I suppose?”
“Y-yes,” Twilight replied, “You’re Octavia, right? Is Vinyl home?”
“Yes, she’s in the basement, making, as she calls it, music,” Octavia rolled her eyes.
Well, that explains why the ground is shaking.
“How is she?” Twilight asked, when they entered the living-room.
“Much better, I think. She found it ironic, when she read that her psychologist had gone nuts. Is that true that she was the Toolsmith? She seemed really nice,”
“Well, that’s actually the reason of my visit. I’m not entirely sure about whole that story and I hope that Vinyl will help me solve it,” explained Twilight.
“But how? She doesn’t remember anything, except of those dreams,”
“Still it’s more than any other possessed pony. What I want to do is to try hypnosis to see if she remembers who gave her the potion,”
Octavia managed to keep a straight face, but Twilight felt that she’s not fond of this idea.
“Hypnosis? Is that even possible?”
“Well, I’ve read a book…”
Octavia sighed.
“Ok, I have no idea how it’ll work, but it’s the only way!” Twilight yelled, “Only way, since I… I killed the only pony who could say anything about the Toolsmith!”
Octavia stared at her, shocked.
“You did what?” another voice asked. Vinyl came out from the basement and was looking at Twilight in a way similar to Octavia’s. For a moment Twilight wondered how she heard them over the beats.
She told them what happened in a hospital and explained her plan to Vinyl. The DJ, however wasn’t convinced:
“That’s some crazy stuff, Twi. Will the court even believe it?”
“I think so. There were some precedents…”
“Yeah, but will those precedents protect me from side effects? I don’t wanna go back to the nuthouse…”
“What?” Octavia asked, “You’ve never told me you were in the nuthouse…”
“It was long time before I met you,” Vinyl explained, “Some bitch hit me with a bottle in a bar, and I was brought to ER. They wanted to sew my wound, and I’m afraid of needles, ya know. So I ran away and hid on a psychiatric ward,”
“And what happened then?” Octavia wasn’t sure whether to laugh or facehoof.
“My roommate barked at me and bit my leg. When they found me, they not only had to apply stitches, but also gave me injections against rabies.”
Octavia finally failed to contain laughter. Even Twilight smiled faintly.
“So, Twilight, you’re not gonna mess with my brain?”
“As if there was anything to mess with,” Octavia deadpanned.
“Well, I’ve read in a book that as soon as I’ll finish, you’ll get back to normal,”
Vinyl muttered something that sounded like “I don’t wanna be normal”. Twilight took it as “yes”.
“So, Vinyl, I need you to lie down on a couch and relax…”
“That’s what he said…”
“Vinyl!” Twilight and Octavia scolded simultaneously.
“Ok, sorry, I’m relaxing now…” groaned Vinyl, lying down on a couch. Twilight aimed her horn at the DJ, lit it, and said:
“I want you to remember the events of the night when Bon-Bon was attacked. Do you remember who gave you the cider?”
Lots of colourful images started to pop up in Vinyl’s eyesight.
“Wooow… it’s like those mushrooms, remember, Tavi?”
“What mushrooms?” asked Twilight.
“I think it’s not that part of her memory,” said Octavia quickly.
“Are you sure?” Twilight asked her, staring at Vinyl, who was now smiling unconsciously, her eyes half-closed.
“Yes, the mushrooms aren’t important,” the cellist sighed.
“If you say so… Vinyl, do you remember who gave you the cider that night?”
“Wait a minute, Twilight,” said Vinyl, her voice surprisingly clear, “I think I’m developing some kind of hyperthymesia, even though I have never heard that word in my life. Or maybe I’m in contact with some higher intelligence, some supernatural being…”
“Twilight Sparkle, you’ve broken her,” Octavia deadpanned.
“...my spiritual self descends upon that point in time and space when Bon-Bon was attacked. Yes, now I am at my turntables, cheering the crowd, they love me, adore me, they shout my name…”
“Ok, she’s herself again,”
“Now I see somepony, giving me the mug of cider. Yes, I’d totally have a drink. There are lots of ponies there, pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies, one changeling without disguise, ponies think he’s a pony dressed as a changeling. Oh wait, he passed out. Do you know that changelings can’t drink alcohol? Well, this buddy didn’t know that…”
“Vinyl,” Twilight prompted, “Go back to the pony who gave you the cider…”
“Oh yes. I can see her as if she was here. A pegasus. Orange eyes. Purple mane. Yellow coat. Three umbrellas on her, quite attractive, flank. Yes, I totally swing that way, you may guess from the fact that I live with the sexiest cellist on the planet…”
“Oh, Vinyl…” Octavia muttered, her face bright red.
Twilight’s magic faded. Vinyl opened her eyes.
“I had a wonderful dream,” she said, “I became one with the Universe.”
“That’s great, honey,” Octavia replied, still flattered by DJ’s compliment, “But, what’s more important, you gave us the description of the Toolsmith! Now you’ll be able to catch her, Twilight! Twilight?”
Twilight was sitting on the floor near the couch, her face emotionless. She seemed to process something, muttering silently “yellow coat… three umbrellas…”
“Something’s wrong, dear?” Octavia asked, “You’ve never seen that pony?”
“No, it’s not that,” said Twilight, “I’ve seen her… on a photo in Surveillance’s office.”
“So, guards already know her!” Vinyl exclaimed, “It’ll be easier to catch her!”
“I don’t think so… Her name is Parasol. Or rather it was Parasol. She died during the storm, long before Krissy went on a rampage.”
Author's Note
On a side note: what do colourful cartoon ponies living in a magic land see after eating mushrooms?
“So, Toolsmith died in the storm she caused? If that story was making sense, I’d say that Karma is a bitch,” Surveillance commented.
Again, they were sitting in his office. Twilight just finished referring him what she found out when she hypnotised Vinyl.
“Yes, but I was thinking…”
“What were you thinking? Your whole argument is based on the hallucinations of a junkie!”
“Excuse me, sir,” Twilight tried to remain calm, “Hypnosis is not a hallucination. I only tried to explore Vinyl’s subconsciousness in order to find out if her memory…”
“Whatever! Whoever the Toolsmith was, she’s now dead. Case closed.”
Twilight sighed, and left the office.
***
For several hours she wandered aimlessly through Ponyville, not noticing anypony. Eventually she headed to the pub, but it was still closed, as its owner was in the hospital. The only good thing was that she met Rainbow Dash there, staring at the door with an expression of utter disappointment.
“Hello, Dash,” she greeted the pegasus, who suddenly jumped, scared.
“Twilight! It’s you!”
“Drinking again, Dash?”
“Me? No, I just…” she looked in Twilight’s eyes and sighed, “Ok, I was going to get wasted again. I still can’t get myself together after that storm.”
“Can I help you?”
“I don’t think so, unless you have a bottle of vodka… Anyway, you don’t look well too…”
“Yes, Surveillance closed the Toolsmith’s case…”
They trotted to the park and sat on a bench, observing the setting sun.
“Life sucks…” said Rainbow Dash suddenly, “I can’t even teach Scootaloo to fly, she’s still grounded. And I’m suspended from weather team till they finish the investigation.”
“Weather team… Dash, do you think somepony from the weather team could be the Toolsmith?”
“No, no way. Even this guy, Cloud Counter seems to be ok. Do you know that he went to Sankt Ponysburg with Cloudchaser?”
“Really? When?”
“Just yesterday. You know, that’s funny, how small Cloudsdale really is,” Rainbow Dash smiled.
“What do you mean?”
“He met Cloudchaser when he arrived to help us with the storm. After this whole story with Krissy, Flitter told me that they were together in High School, and Berry Punch now tells anyone who visits her in toxicology ward, that Cloud Counter and Krissy used to be together. Their break-up was quite rough.”
“So, maybe Surveillance is right: Krissy found out that he is now with Cloudchaser and decided to take revenge?” Twilight asked, “But then, why it was Parasol who gave the potion to Vinyl?”
“Parasol gave potion to Vinyl?” Rainbow Dash stared at her friend with shock. Twilight told her about the hypnosis.
“That’s crazy. What would Parasol have to do with it?” pegasus asked.
“I don’t know. Did you know her?”
“Not well. She was hanging out mostly with Flitter, Cloudchaser and Thunderlane,”
“Hmm…” suddenly Twilight reminded that Krissy told her something about weather team. But what?
“What’s up, Twi?”
“Nothing, I’m thinking…”
“Oh yeah, thinking again…” Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry, “Krissy maybe was a crazy knife murderer, but at least she was more talkative…” she stood up and flapped her wings.
“Talkative…” something clicked in Twilight’s head, “Dash, wait! I got it! I got it!”
“You got what?”
“The day she died! In the morning she told me that she had talked with some ponies from weather team the day before!”
“So?”
“Somepony could give her the potion! Whom she talked to?”
“I don’t know…” Dash shrugged. In her opinion, since Twilight started to help Royal Guards with investigations, she developed an annoying manner of switching between “leave me alone, the world hates me” and “Let’s see if I can be more hyperactive than Pinkie Pie!” constantly, definitely too fast for her liking.
“Dash, come on! It’s important!”
“You know, I hardly remember those days. In fact, my only memory is that I woke up in your bath, and Spike was telling me that dragon’s metabolism prevents them from being hung over,”
“Oh…” for a moment Dash saw a glimpse of sympathy in Twilight’s eyes, quickly replaced by shadow of fury (I apologised for the bath! she thought) which was soon wiped out by “Twi-the-scientist mode”.
“Maybe we should try hypnosis?” unicorn proposed.
“What? No… no hypnosis, I have an allergy. In fact I remember… something. Yes, she talked to Cloud Counter, Spitfire, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Snowflake, everypony who wasn’t in hospital,” said Rainbow Dash, thinking really quickly.
“Yeah, but he doesn’t seem to be the guy who kills his former marefriends,”
“Yes, but serial killers usually look like any other pony,” said Twilight.
“I know! It couldn’t be Spitfire, but I wondered about Thunderlane. He was envious when he found out that Cloudchaser…”
“And so he decided to kill Counter’s ex-marefriends, using such a sophisticated modus operandi?”
“Oh… you’re right,”
“Dash, focus…” Twilight sighed, “Who, of all the members of the weather team, needed psychologist’s help the most?”
“Me,” Rainbow Dash said, “but my psychologist’s name is Apple Cider,” she smiled sheepishly, “Dunno, Cloudchaser and Flitter probably. You know, they tried to save her, poor Flitter, when I last saw her she looked really miserable. And I heard that she doesn’t leave her house now…”
“Cloudchaser! She went with Cloud Counter to Sankt Ponysburg! She wants to kill him!”
“Relax, Twi, not so loud,” Dash frowned, “Cloudchaser would be a killer?”
Twilight wasn’t paying attention to her.
“How fast can you fly there?”
“Really, Twilight, chill out, even I can’t fly with supersonic speed for a long time… Besides, it’s night, for Luna’s sake!”
“Oh… ok,” Twilight looked around, as if she just noticed the darkness enveloping the park. “But promise me, you’ll fly behind them in the morning!”
“Yeah, sure,” said Dash half-heartedly.
***
Thoughts raced through Twilight’s head when she came back to the library. Spike was already snoring in his basket, but, despite tossing and turning, she couldn’t fall asleep. Eventually she decided to come downstairs and read something to kill some time. She took “Halter’s Illustrated Biochemistry” from its shelf, brought a tea from the kitchen and sat in the library’s lobby.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle,”
She opened her eyes, but saw nothing. Did I fall asleep? she thought.
“You probably wonder who I am.”
She tried to stand up, only to find out that she’s strapped to some pipes behind her.
“Oh, sorry, that’s just a precaution,” said a pony hiding in darkness, “I don’t want you to do something that would spoil my plan. Oh, and don’t bother with magic, I put a magic-negating ring on your horn,”
“Who the hell are you?” she shouted, although the answer was obvious, “Toolsmith…”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Toolsmith laughed, “Pretty nice name, thanks for that. Too bad, I won’t be remembered as the biggest killer in Equestria…”
“Why not? Most of your traps weren’t successful, but I must admit, your method was unusual,” said Twilight.
“Oh, I’m flattered,” Toolsmith deadpanned, “I won’t be remembered as Toolsmith, because after what will happen here, everypony will think that you were the Toolsmith,”
“How so?” Twilight couldn’t help laughing, “You somehow transported me to your basement, probably in attempt to kill me like in this poor horror novels, and you think you’ll get away with that?”
Toolsmith was unfazed.
“Technically, Twilight Sparkle, we are in your basement. And, by the way, don’t bother with screaming, your assistant is sleeping quite well after that powder I added to the tea,”
Twilight gulped, feeling the sweat running down her forehead. Her mysterious guest seemed to think about every detail.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why? Why?” Toolsmith mocked her, “Why do I want to kill you and act a humble pony, the last victim of the great Toolsmith who somehow managed to self-defend? Or why do I hate Cloud Counter so much, that I want to kill everypony he ever considered his friend?”
“Both,” said Twilight, desperately trying to contain panic, “You know, scientific curiosity. As a criminal mastermind, you probably know that feeling. You can kill me if you want, but I must know…”
“Oh, Ms Sparkle, you make me blush,” Toolsmith said. Twilight sighed with relief. Keeping that pony in a good mood could buy her some time.
“Well, I need to kill you, because you’re too close. This old idiot, Surveillance would never find a link between a mysterious murder in Cloudsdale, and DJ suddenly killing one of her fans here, in Ponyville. This was my mistake, by the way, as you know, this old recipe doesn’t work well with unicorns. I knew you wouldn’t believe that Krissy was a Toolsmith, so I had to follow you. And then, this evening I heard you and Rainbow Dash mentioning my name. I had to act quickly,”
“Still, I don’t know how do you want to get away with killing me,” said Twilight.
“Oh, it’s simple. Imagine poor, little, depressed pony, who comes for advice to the famous consulting detective. The pony noticed something during the storm of the century, and accuses the detective. The detective knows there’s only one way to silence the witness. Everypony who saw you in the hospital knows that you’re capable of casting lethal spells. The poor, depressed pony, however, brought an artefact from the First Griffonian War. You know, some kind of great-grandfather memorabilia,”
The mysterious pony lit the candle. At first Twilight was so focused on a small crossbow made of black wood and silver, that she didn’t looked at the pony wielding it. When she did, her jaw dropped.
The Toolsmith was a lilac pony with light blue mane, tied with pink bow. She was watching her with half-closed eyes, aiming a crossbow at her.
“F-Flitter?”
“Yes. But you can still call me Toolsmith, if you like. This,” she pointed at the crossbow, “belonged to my great-grandfather, it’s small, fast-reloading, and can pierce a heavily-armoured griffon. Do you prefer me to shoot you in the heart, stomach or maybe right through one of the eyes? Personally I don’t recommend stomach. And really, shooting at such an enormous brain would be such a waste…”
“You still haven’t answered my question,” said Twilight, her throat dry, “Why did you have to kill all those ponies?”
“Oh, Twilight, you’re asking me while you almost figured that out yourself? Ok, we have some time, I’ll tell you. You know that Krissy was Cloud Counter’s marefriend. Well, Parasol was too, at the same time. They eventually found out that descriptions of their boyfriends surprisingly match each other, and they broke up, but Krissy was still saying that she loves him! That’s pathetic, don’t you think?”
Twilight nodded. How long will it take before Spike wakes up?
“Of course, as their school friend, I knew everything. Krissy was really depressed when this poor excuse for a stallion left Cloudsdale and moved to Trottingham. Parasol and I really wanted to kill him,” Flitter sighed, “You probably can guess the rest,”
“You heard that he’d come to Cloudsdale to help weather team with that storm and you decided to take revenge?”
“Exactly!” Flitter exclaimed. Her eyes went wide, and her crossbow-holding hoof twitched. Twilight closed her eyes, expecting a bolt.
“I hope you’ll appreciate the irony,” pegasus said a bit calmer, “I found the potion recipe in your library. If you’d checked the books more often, you would have found out that I hadn’t given that book back,”
“And you prepared it?”
“Yes, shortly before Cloud Counter’s arrival. Too bad, Parasol started to have doubts…”
“Before or after you told her that you’re not going to kill Cloud Counter only?"
“After. She once told me that she saw him in a pub talking to Lyra Heartstrings and that gave me an idea. Stupid girl… she hadn’t noticed when I slipped a potion in her coffee. Now she was at my command!”
“When Cloud Counter arrived…”
“…I decided that his friend will be the first target. I went with my sister to the pub they were sitting in. It wasn’t difficult to split them: Rainstorm was the same asshole as Cloudy, but less subtle. I hit him and we left him in the pub. I ordered Parasol to follow him – it’s easy to control a possessed pony, although it makes me a bit unfocused, my sister thought that I was drunk. He went for a walk through Cloudsdale. I gave Parasol a bottle of cider with a potion, she was supposed to give it to Rainstorm and then order him to commit suicide. But then that filly approached them and I had to act quickly. I ordered Parasol to give the cider to a filly and when I had her in control, I made her hit Rainstorm with a wrecking bar. He was sitting at the edge of the cloud when she did it, which made the whole task easier…”
“But then it got complicated, because of your sister,” said Twilight.
“DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT!!!” Flitter cried, “My stupid sister fell in love with that dick, can you imagine that? I thought about killing him instantly, but no… I wanted to make him suffer…”
For a moment she aimed the crossbow directly between Twilight’s eyes, but then suddenly backed away, panting heavily.
“You know how it was with the DJ,” she said emotionlessly, “but you thought that this whole storm was aimed at killing me and my sister. You were wrong, Twilight Sparkle,” a trace of pride could be heard in her voice.
“Let me guess… your connection with Parasol started to wear off?”
“Brilliant! I was better at controlling other ponies, but somehow she was slipping from my hooves… So I gave a potion to Rainbow Dash and my sister. Nothing big, I only made Dash set a different hour, and ordered my sister to hide a small storm cloud in the orchard. When the storm started, we led Parasol there, and I bucked the cloud just above her head. She had no chance,” Flitter grinned, “I made my sister think that she was struck and we tried to save her, and flew to the rescue group. They really liked that show I made… And then they found Lighting Dust and nopony was asking about poor Parasol again… Only Cloudchaser, Rainbow Dash and I came to her funeral, everypony else chose Dust’s, even Spitfire, who had fired her from the Academy herself,” her voice was filled with sadness. Even Twilight felt sympathy.
“And then there was Krissy…”
“Yes!” Flitter chirped merrily and came closer to Twilight, “That’s funny, she only came to drink tea with us after the storm… And then she was under my control,” pegasus spread her wings, “Ok, Twi, that’s enough, time to say goodbye!” she turned around, and one of her wings hit Twilight’s face.
If you ever want to hurt the pegasus, aim at the wings.
She leant forward as far as the rope let her and bit Flitter’s wing with the full force of her jaw, which, for an herbivore, is substantial. The pegasus screamed and thrashed, trying to free herself from Twilight’s grip. Finally she managed to buck the unicorn with her hind legs and pull her wing from between unicorn’s jaws. She jumped away and stared furiously at Twilight, who spat some feathers, blood – hers and Flitter’s - and two frontal teeth.
“Now you really pissed me off, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, waving an injured wing, which was bleeding profusely, “I really wanted to make it quick, but now you deserve at least a quarter of painful agony…” she aimed the crossbow at Twilight’s stomach, “Any last words?”
“SHOVE THIS DAMN BOLT UP YOUR FLANK!” a battlecry tore the basement’s silence. Twilight watched, stunned, as the rainbow trail appeared behind Flitter and tackled her. A flash of green fire enlightened the room and she saw Rainbow Dash and Spike trying to disarm the other pegasus.
“Spike! How…”
“Dragon’s metabolism!” he explained, running toward her to free her. Behind him, Rainbow Dash managed to pull the crossbow from Flitter’s hoof, but was quickly hit with the other leg. Flitter caught her mane and tried to hit her once more, but Dash squeezed her injured wing, causing her to scream once more.
“Spike, take this ring off my horn!”
The dragon did so, and she untied the rope with a spell. They both turned to the fighting pegasi, ready to help Rainbow Dash.
However, she didn’t need any help. Flitter was lying on the floor, with the cyan mare standing on her injured wing and punching her repeatedly, yelling:
“That’s for Twilight! That’s for Parasol! That’s for Bon-Bon!”
“Dash, stop!”
“That’s for Lyra! That’s for Vinyl!”
“Dash, I said STOP!”
“That’s for Lighting Dust…” Rainbow Dash panted, and got off Flitter’s wing. The beaten pony gave her a half-conscious, but still unpleasant look and started to wipe blood and tears from her face with one hoof. Her right leg was resting at an angle suggesting that it was broken.
“Dash, really, that was unnecessary…” said Twilight, watching a pony crawling on the floor.
“What? She just tried to kill you! She killed all those ponies and wounded several others! And, by the way, that’s for Scootaloo!” She kicked Flitter, who rolled several feet and landed near the wooden pillar.
“Dash! I said, stop! Don’t be like her! How did you find me, by the way?”
“You told me to follow Cloudchaser, so I dropped to say goodbye and found Spike, half-asleep. We found it strange that you left an open book in the lobby. And also we heard a scream… Something like pegasus whose wing was bitten…” she gave a nasty glare to Flitter, who was trying to get up.
“Only thing I was able to do,” said Twilight, “But really, Dash, you shouldn’t have beaten her. For a moment I thought that you are the Toolsmith, and you’re trying to cover the fact that she regained consciousness after I bit her,”
“Twilight, you should give up that job,” said Rainbow Dash, “You’re getting crazy…”
“I know. Then I remembered that she was trying to kill me even after I bit her, so she wasn’t possessed…”
“Watch out!” Spike screamed.
In the opposite corner of the basement, Flitter was sitting with a crossbow in her good hoof. Although she was beaten, wounded and dirty, she was smiling when she aimed it at Twilight and released the bolt.
The unicorn felt that something heavy hit her side and fell on the ground. She recovered quickly and fired a powerful magical beam. It mixed in mid-air with Spike’s green flame and hit Flitter, charring her fur and sending her flying. With an unpleasant crack her body hit the wall and fell on the ground.
“Did we kill her?” asked Spike.
“I hope not. She missed?”
Nopony replied. Twilight looked around and saw Rainbow Dash standing in the place where she was standing just a moment ago.
“Don’t worry Twilight, I’m fine,” she said just before she collapsed on the ground with a bolt in her chest.
Author's Note
Only epilogue to go.
“Are you going to visit Rainbow Dash?”
“Yes, Scootaloo, I’ll go to her later,” Twilight replied absent-mindedly, continuing her walk through the park. The weather was cloudy, and only few ponies were there, not caring about the upcoming rain. Twilight looked at the bench she and Rainbow Dash had been sitting the day they caught the Toolsmith. Now Lyra and Bon-Bon were sitting there, Bon-Bon still covered in bandages, but looking much better than few weeks ago. They waved hooves at Twilight, but she didn’t feel like talking to them. She noticed that orange filly was following her.
“May I go with you?” Scootaloo asked.
“If you want… By the way, you’re not grounded anymore?”
“No, my parents are no longer mad at me. They’ve read the news… At first I wanted to look for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, but then I thought that visiting her would be a right thing,” said Scootaloo sadly. Twilight didn’t know what to say. She felt something similar, but didn’t know how to express that. Instead she said:
“You know, Scootaloo, that I’ve never actually met your parents? Who are they?”
“Oh yeah,” orange filly cheered up a bit, “They’re both pulling flying chariots, so they’re travelling a lot. Even Rainbow Dash thought that I was an orphan…” again, an awkward silence fell. They went through the gate of the cemetery.
“So… what happened to the Toolsmith?” asked Scootaloo.
“She’s still in a coma. If she ever wakes up, she’ll be imprisoned for life, either in jail or in the asylum,” said Twilight.
***
“In a coma? As I said, Karma all along,” concluded Surveillance. They were standing in the hospital corridor. Twilight examined her face in a mirror. She had a black eye and several cuts, but at least doctor managed to magically regenerate her teeth.
“Anyway, we want to thank you very much, Twilight Sparkle,” said Hot Pursuit, before her boss could say something more. She leaned to her and added “Of course, Surveillance will never admit that he was wrong, but…”
“I heard that!” Surveillance frowned, “Ms Sparkle, I never thought that I will say that, but if you still want to work with us, I’ll be very glad to…”
“No.”
“What?”
“I can’t. If you want to ask me for advice, you know where to find me. I don’t know if I’d withstand one more case like this, and that’s why I want to quit.”
“This has something to do with that poor bas… I mean, your friend?” asked Surveillance politely. Twilight only nodded her head.
***
They trotted up the hill. Scootaloo suddenly stopped, seeing a lonely pony silhouette near one of the graves.
“What’s she doing here? How dare she…” she asked Twilight.
“You know, she was her friend too,” replied the unicorn, “and remember, she’s not guilty of her sister’s crimes.”
When they approached her, Cloudchaser made a move as if she wanted to fly away, but eventually she decided to stay.
“Hello,” she said, not looking at them.
“Cloudchaser… is everything all right?” asked Twilight, knowing what the answer was.
“Nothing is all right!” pegasus snapped. For a moment Twilight recalled that moment in her basement, when she was sure that Flitter was going to kill her, “My friends are dead, my sister is almost dead and everypony hates me for what she did!”
“I don’t hate you,” Scootaloo said. Cloudchaser looked at her.
“Cloud Counter said the same,” her voice was much calmer, but still it was shaking a bit, “But I just couldn’t be with him, after all that… I broke up with him,” she turned her gaze back to the grave, “I’ve been there when she killed her and done nothing… I don’t even remember that…”
“Don’t bother yourself with that,” said Twilight, who was also watching three umbrellas engraved on a tombstone, “You were under the influence of the potion, you couldn’t do anything to prevent that,”
“I could! She is my sister, I thought I know her!”
“We all thought we know her,” another voice said. Everypony looked around to see two ponies walking slowly toward them.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“Not so loud, kid, remember where we are,” the cyan pegasus said. Her chest was bandaged and Fluttershy was helping her to walk, but she was in relatively good shape.
“You were released from the hospital?” asked Twilight.
“As you can see. Still, no flying, no physical exertion, unless doctor says otherwise,” she turned to Cloudchaser, “Listen, ‘Chaser, I’ve heard what you said, and I have one thing to tell you: I went through this too. I felt really guilty when I realised that Parasol and Lightning Dust died because of me. Even when they told me that I wasn’t myself, I thought that I could do something, like not drinking that energy drink…”
“But I could do something! I lived with her!”
“You just couldn’t predict that. No one could,” said Rainbow Dash. Cloudchaser sat silently, still not entirely convinced.
“And don’t think we hate you. If you want to talk about that, we’ll be there for you,” Fluttershy added, embracing Cloudchaser with her wing. The violet pegasus stopped sobbing, but still looked rather glumly.
“Um… Twilight? Do you think we should leave?” Scootaloo asked quietly.
“No, Scoots, you can stay,” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight, however, decided to walk away, leaving the four pegasi on the top of the hill, watching the sun piercing through the dark clouds.
THE END
Author's Note
Well, so that's how the story ends, after about two months of writing (I started publishing it while I was halfway through the fourth chapter, without the exactly planned ending - as TVTropes says, it was written by the seat of my pants).
